The Passing of a Family Member
With a gentle strength, warm humor, and abundant care and love, Eugene Daniel Santos Vibar arrived into the City Repair family over a year ago. In great sadness, we mourn his passing.
Many of City Repair organizers first met Eugene while taking the Urban Permaculture Design Course with Mark Lakeman and Matt Bibeau. As fellow students and teachers, we bonded around sustainable agriculture and social justice. Eugene, thriving on these ideas and work, became a volunteer with us, and quickly took responsibility as a core organizer and coordinator for our main program, the Village Building Convergence.
Eugene would be everywhere and do anything. As nutrition co-coordinator, Eugene was responsible for our meals and was out building relationships with donors and gathering supplies, then back setting up, leading volunteers, cooking up a storm, and finally washing dishes. Committed to his community service Eugene made himself present from beginning to end of the task at hand, never shying away from the dirtiest or difficult parts.
In City Repair, we strive to remove barriers that lead to social isolation, from physical structures like a lack of public places, to the way we interact with one-another socially and culturally. In this endeavor, Eugene touched us deeply with his emotional and experiential transparency by always openly sharing his feelings and philosophical transformations as he developed in his activism. He would share his deepest emotions and feel free to cry (usually from joy!) in front of us while in a large group. Such vulnerability, intimacy and rawness can be tough to show in a society that can be overly sanitary and emotionally narrow.
While he is no longer with us in this physical realm and while we grieve and integrate this different world into our systems, Eugene is still weaved into the fabric of who we are and the work we do. There is no way to concisely describe the depth and positive impact our beloved Eugene has touched this community.
On Sunday, Nov. 29th we invite the community to a wake and memorial for Eugene from noon to 7 pm at 1815 NE 46th Avenue. This is a come and go and as you need potluck, and there will be time to verbally share your heart, contribute to a scrapbook that will be given to his family, and be present to support one-another.